Tips and Tricks for Writers
by LionRulersRoar
Summary: This is a helpful guide for writers on how to make their writing better.


**So, I noticed that a lot of young writers struggle with certain areas in writing, and I decided to help them out…**

 **Okay, we decided to help them out.**

 **Laney, the person who actually owns this account, proposed this idea and I built off it. She will be doing all the even chapters (2,4,6,8) and I'll be doing the odds (3,5,7,9).**

 **Now, for our first lesson (ignore that I sound like an annoying teacher…)**

 _Lesson One: Interesting Characters and Development_

Now, this looks and sounds easy, doesn't it? Just pick out a name and come up with a bit of personality and done.

Yeah, not at all.

This is one of the most crucial elements of your story. Your characters can make you or break you.

Since this is so much information, I'm going to spilt the lesson up in groups.

 _Group One: Are They Believable?_

You can't have a character that's perfect. Everyone will hate that character. On the flip side, they also can't be incredibly weak with zero strong points. And this also depends on what genre your story is. You can't have someone with super speed, super strength, and the ability to fly if your writing a story that takes place on Earth with regular people. This is only acceptable if your writing a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Adventure story. But we'll talk about genres later.

Read this paragraph.

 _Mary Jane smiled as she pranced around the school. Everyone watched her as she skipped by, the boys all head over heels and the girls admiring her beauty, strength, and smarts. She was the best in class and the most popular girl in school. Everyone loved her, and everybody said she was the prettiest. She was also the richest person in her city and untouchable in everything athletic. She was perfect._

Are you bored? Annoyed? Did you even read it all the way through? Did you want Mary Jane to face something terrible? Did you even like her in the slightest?

Probably not.

The reason why you're bored, annoyed, or even hating on her is simple: she has everything going for her. Everything is perfect for her, and she is perfect. She have an ounce of reality in her, which automatically bores you or makes you annoyed with the author. You may even be _jealous_ of her.

This is something you _must_ avoid in your writing.

The easiest thing to do is make sure they have nothing going for them. What I mean by that is sure, they might be perfect in personality, but they're poor, not athletic at all, ugly, dumb, and everyone hates them. This automatically makes you feel bad for them.

An even more effective method is to flaw their personality. Maybe they are the smartest in class, the most popular, the most athletic, and the best looking, but they have something wrong with them emotionally. Maybe they struggle with jealousy, anger, depression, pride, or bitterness. (I personally would use this for a villain rather than a hero, but you could still make a compelling character with this).

The most effective method is to balance it. Perhaps they're the smartest and the nicest person in their school, but they struggle with anger and they aren't very good looking.

And you don't have to use that example, you can come up with your own mixture.

If you have any questions, PM me or leave a review if you're a guest. I'll clear it up best as I can.

 _Group Two: How's the Personality?_

This is one of the easiest, but most time consuming, parts of a character. The novel that I just finished writing has a lot of diverse personality, but it also took me a year or so to figure out the characters, to chart them out until they were complete.

Here's the catch: They can't all be the same.

Again, sounds easy, but it isn't. You may have eight side characters and one main character, and the main character is an amazing character, but the side characters are all the same. Sure, they share one or two traits, (such as having two or three really smart characters) but the rest of their personalities must be different.

A perfect example is Hunger Games. I love the book, but its not my favorite, nor will it ever be, simply because the characters were all way too similar. Look at the chart below.

 _Katniss: Brave, selfless, tough_

 _Haymitch: Smart, tough, brave_

 _Peeta: Smart, selfless, brave_

 _Gale: Tough, brave, selfless_

 _Finnick: Witty, brave, tough_

Seeing a pattern? Each has three main traits, and they all share at least one. You don't want the same with your characters. Now, look at the chart below with the characters of Keeper of the Lost Cities.

 _Sophie: Selfless, kind, brave_

 _Fitz: Confident, sweet, tough_

 _Keefe: Witty, loyal, protective_

 _Biana: Loyal, brave, nice_

 _Dex: Sweet, kind, selfless_

 _Linh: Sweet, brave, shy_

 _Tam: Sarcastic, witty, protective_

 _Marella: Sarcastic, confident, tough_

See how all the personalities are diverse? Sure, Marella and Tam are both sarcastic, but they're quite different. And yeah, both Sophie and Biana are brave, but they aren't even comparable to be honest.

I think I've made my point. If you have any questions, PM me or leave a review with the inquiry.

 _Group Three: Any Good Villains?_

A good villain is one of the best parts of a book. And there are so many different methods for them!

Method One: Make the reader love the villain. If they love the villain, they'll find themselves in the middle of the conflict. Do they want the good guy to win? Or do they truly want the villain to crush the hero? There are many ways to use this method, you can either make the reader feel bad for the villain, or the villain is simply just too amazing for them to hate s/he. The best example is Shane from Spirit Animals. For most of the series, you hate Shane. Suddenly, the truth is revealed in the Book of Shane and feel so bad for him, you have to like him. Then the author pulls out the big guns, shaping Shane's personality just right, and that's when I absolutely fell in love with the character of Shane. And many other readers agree that he's a great character.

Method Two: Make the reader hate the villain. Make the villain so cruel, so wicked, they can't help but _loathe_ the villain, and they'll rejoice even more-so when the bad guy finally gets what s/he deserve (that is, if they do). A perfect example is President Snow from Hunger Games. He takes small children and practically murders them. No one likes a murderer, and especially not a child killer! This hate made us all cheer when he finally died.

Method Three: Make the reader fear the villain. If the villain is scary, then of course they'll want s/he gone! As soon as possible too! Which also means you can draw out the series, and they'll stay attached, thirsting for the day the villain goes down.

Now, follow these instructions and you'll find a pretty darn good villain. And you know the drill if you have a question or two.

 _Group Four: What About Development?_

Development is an easy thing to achieve… sometimes. Each and every character will come along a chance to be developed, and I urge you to seize the opportunity. But you also can't wait for the time to come. And you also can't throw a ton of development at the reader in one chapter and be done. Development is long, drawn out process. And some characters will be prone to it while others won't.

A great example is a peaked player. Two basketball players, one just keeps getting better while the other has already peaked and can't get any better.

The same will happen with your characters.

Take Fitz and Keefe from Keeper of the Lost Cities for instance. Keefe just keeps getting more and more development while Fitz's development is spread out as much as ever. Keefe's personality just keeps growing while Fitz is the same, boring person he was in book one.

Don't get me wrong, every character can be developed, but some are easy and some aren't. I have two characters in my book, and for one development came naturally. But the other, I had to seriously brainstorm for him. He's way less interesting than a lot of my other characters, but I can still find ways to make him better. Doesn't mean he'll suddenly be the best character in the book, but he'll at least be interesting.

This lesson is done. Again, if you have any questions do all the stuff.

 **Thanks for reading, ~Lace the Humorous~**


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